


(m/h)uling pagkikita

by Hugabug



Series: bayaniserye drabble challenge [10]
Category: Heneral Luna (2015)
Genre: Gen, Lunasona
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-23 23:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7483581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hugabug/pseuds/Hugabug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Heneral, you're alive."</p>
            </blockquote>





	(m/h)uling pagkikita

She almost wants to laugh, at the little scared look he gets when he sees the massive swell of her belly beneath her folded hands. But the look persists, even as his gaze shifts from her unborn child to her face, and it kills the mirth that a few seconds ago had threatened to bubble from her mouth.

The air turns sour. Her lips tick downward.

“Heneral.” she says in greeting, tilting her head to the left, the movement oddly reptilian. “You’re alive.”

Del Pilar nods. “Hanging on.” he replies, the charm in his tone less a tool and more a habit he can no longer shake. “Thanks to you and your likes, of course.”

“Flattery will take you no where.” she smiles, thinly. Eyes the badges on his throat. “Well… Not with me at least.”

He bristles. She smiles wider.

“Why are you here?” he inquires, just shy of demanding but not quite.

“To do what I do best.” she answers, shrugging. “But being with child leaves much to be desired. I can’t chase little soldier boys around the field anymore.” Her eyes flick, up and down, from shiny riding boots to a pristine khaki uniform. She makes sure he sees. “You can’t either, I suppose.”

This time, she does laugh at the look on his face, an expression contorted in between a bland smile and a bitter frown. All these years she’d known him, he was a series of masks, one after the other, and such remarkable strength had he to hold them all up. Now, they were slipping, all at once, cracking beneath a force so great, and he is tired.

(Aren’t they all?)

“This could have been avoided.” she says, nonchalantly.

“It is no use, pondering over the twists and turns of the past.” he shrugs. “If we want to defeat them, we must do what we must.”

He sounds like he’s reciting something out of a prayer book. She laughs. Then shakes her head.

“Go, little soldier boy.” she shoos him away, rolling her eyes. “March on.”

Del Pilar gives her a salute, suave clicking back into place the second his hat sits on his well combed hair. Before he turns to leave her, however, he inclines his head to the side and smiles, wearily.

“Congratulations,” he says, indicating her belly. “He must be very happy.”

She rests a hand on her belly once more. Smiles, without a hint of spite. “He is. Thank you.”

Another tilt of the head. A small goodbye. Then he heads out.

She never sees him again.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr ver.](http://en-sam-malas.tumblr.com/post/146809661330/mhuling-pagkikita)


End file.
